Tangelo Tofu

I don’t if it’s the upcoming spring equinox or if it’s daylight savings time or something funky happening planetarily, but I’m off. And I’m not the only one. Half of the people I’ve talked to in the past few days are feeling off, and have no clear attributions for why they are feeling this way. In a conversation last night with individuals who saw the world in VERY different ways than I do, this “off state,” or should I say, our respective “off states” came to a head. Putting my glass-half-full hat on, I tried to turn a very depleting and at times extremely frustrating ‘conversation’ into a personal growth moment. Here goes nothin’…

The first lesson in any sort of communications class is this: communication is not just sending a message; communication is sending a message that the recipient receives in the way that the sender intended it. This is precisely the beauty and the difficulty of communication. Sending messages is easy. Receiving messages is easy too. But sending messages that people receive in the way you wanted them to, well, that is an art and a skill that many of us, if not all of us, would like to get better at. And this is an art and a skill that becomes that much harder when people are coming from different backgrounds, experiences, and realities. How do we get past our differences to reach goals? Well, that may be the one of the most fundamental questions of humanity. We can walk on the moon, but can’t reach consensus with civility. I do not know the answer, but I am dedicated to continually working on my communication skills, to listening for listening’s sake rather than just to debate, and to attempting to better understand perspectives that are different from my own–even after daylight savings, even during allergy season, and even when I’m feeling off.

And yes, if I’ve kept you this long, you’ve probably realized that this has absolutely nothing to do with the tangelo tofu that I made for dinner the other night. I just thought I’d sharing my thoughts on communication and on the strange energy that seems to be permeating folks’ lives right now. In terms of the tofu, well, it’s freaking delish! 😀 And is the culmination of having tangelos that were slightly more sour than I like. Rather than eat them straight out, I decided to cook with them and made this dish. It’s similar to my other tofu dishes, in that I press the tofu to obtain a firmer texture. The glaze is sweet, sour, and spicy–just like I like it. I hope you enjoy!

*Pour some of the sauce into the bottom of a baking dish. Add fried tofu. Drizzle with more sauce (I used half of the sauce and reserved the other half for another dish). Bake uncovered for 20 minutes (flip once during baking). Serve with veggies and rice or noodles.

Tiffany M. Griffin is the woman behind Como Water, Washington DC’s premiere veg-centric cuisine consulting company. Through cooking classes, demonstrations, catering, and consultations, Como Water gives people the opportunity to learn how to prepare veg-centric cuisine that boasts maximum flavor, with minimal effort.
Tiffany is quickly becoming a go-to expert on the future of veg-centric cuisine, and is a regular contributor to Como Water, the blog, as well as to vegetarian and vegan sites across the Internet. For over a decade, this self-taught, entrepreneurial expert has developed a set of tried and true techniques for making simple, delicious, and sometimes decadent veg-centric dishes.
Featured on the Steve Harvey Show and other leading media outlets, Tiffany was born and raised in Springfield, MA. She then earned Bachelors degrees in Psychology and Communications from Boston College and a PhD in Social Psychology from the University of Michigan. She now resides in Washington DC, where she has worked in the US Senate and at a federal agency on issues around health, food, nutrition, and international food aid/development, and of course, as the owner of Como Water. Tiffany gets culinary inspiration from the food she grew up eating, and from her travels throughout Latin America, the Caribbean, Western Europe, and Sub-Saharan Africa. She is dedicated to sharing her wealth of knowledge on veg-centric cuisine with others and to help others live by her mantra—love life, live long, and eat veg-centric cuisine!

i love what you’re doing with tofu! i have a block in the fridge that needs to be used… i may just have to try this! yum!

i’ve been feeling a little off before DST but that, and news about Japan… it’s just a trying time in the world. hopefully, things will start looking up and turn around once Spring officially arrives in a few days!

I’ve had a few bad experiences with tofu but I am slowly coming around to the idea that prepared properly and with the right flavours it can be rather tasty. Liking the sound of the orange flavours with the garlic and red pepper.

Here in AZ, we don’t do DST, so people here are blaming it all on the big moon coming up. I haven’t had tofu in a coon’s age, but this dish sounds so appetizing, I may have to go buy some. I love what you did here.

Tiffany, loved your post and your thoughts. You know, it’s so weird but feeling more than off this past week. Ok, it’s perhaps the change of timings, weather changing for the better chez nous, then back to cold again so quickly, then… Japan. Suddenly everything been doing this week just seems so pointless. So, feeling more than off but down. Reading your post lifts the spirits to know that we’re not alone in feeling this but finishing it off with a grand finale of tofu with THAT GLAZE, well…. you’re definitely winning me around to trying it, if it’s done like this! Keep it coming. Will have to check out sriracha sauce: sounds intriguing.